


Solitary Man

by awilliamsbbc_98



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Episode: s05e19 Vegas, F/M, M/M, McShep - Freeform, Post-Canon, Vegas!Verse, but not what it looks like
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:56:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28904487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awilliamsbbc_98/pseuds/awilliamsbbc_98
Summary: Picks up where 5x19 "Vegas" leaves off, because I've never been content with leaving that John Sheppard to his fate when the Daedalus presumably has beaming technology.Former Det. John Sheppard had expected to die in the desert, but Dr. Rodney McKay wasn't about to let that happen to the man who had saved his reality from annihilation by the Wraith. Besides, if this John Sheppard was anything like the one he'd met before then he owed him, more than he wanted to admit.Eventual Sheppard/McKay-Sort of character death, but not the main two. Multi-chapter, updates weekly.
Relationships: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard, Ronon Dex/Teyla Emmagan
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	Solitary Man

**Author's Note:**

> Not me writing for an almost dead fandom! But seriously, I just finished an SGA rewatch and haven't been able to get this story out of my head.  
> I don't own Stargate, standard disclaimer, blah blah blah

_“Listen to me. I know what I said, but do not engage, do you hear me?”_

Dr. Rodney McKay cursed under his breath when the phone call crackled into static. If this Sheppard was anything like the other one, if he was right, and he always was, then he was pretty sure he knew exactly what that idiot was doing.

He paced, waiting for the jets to confirm kill on the wraith, watching the data come in with the sinking knowledge that they may have saved their reality, but doomed countless others.

Still, he had been right about Sheppard, and right now Woolsey was right, this reality was the one to be concerned about.

 _“If John Sheppard hadn't found that Wraith when he did, that transmission definitely would have made it through to Pegasus. He saved our asses.”_ Rodney knew he didn’t have to say again, they all knew it, were all thinking it, remembering how much they owed to a different version of John Sheppard.

He ignored Woolsey’s glare, and brushed past Zelenka on his way out of the computer lab, fumbling to reactivate his earwig communicator. His hands were shaking.

“Daedalus, this is Dr. Rodney McKay, come in.” For a moment static crackled in the earpiece, and Rodney felt his heart sink further before he heard Col. Caldwell’s rough voice in response.

“Caldwell here, what can we do for you doctor?”

“Are you still collecting sensor data from the kill zone?” He paced in the hallway, holding up a hand to silence Zelenka as the other scientist stuck his head out of the lab, obviously with the intention of continuing to babble about compromised alternate realities.

There was a pause in which he could hear Caldwell talking indistinctly to his bridge crew, precious seconds ticking by. At last, the Colonel’s voice came through clearly again. “The sub-space event knocked sensors out for a minute there, coming back online now. McKay, what the hell was that? The whole area-”

“Yes yes fascinating, by all means, waste my time telling me things I already know later. I need to know if you’re picking up any life signs in the area.”

Another pause. “Dr. McKay, we have confirmation that the wraith was in the trailer when it blew up, I don’t care what kind of life-sucking alien it was nothing could have-”

“Yes I’m sure it’s dead!” McKay interrupted, grinding his teeth. “Right now I’m more worried about Sheppard. Scan the area for life signs.”

“Sheppard?”

Rodney could hear the sharpness in Caldwell’s voice and knew the Colonel was remembering a different version of John Sheppard, the version from just under a year ago. “Just do it!” he snapped into the headset, turning back to Zelenka in the moments he spent waiting. “Zelenka, get a team out to that trailer. I want anything left sent to my lab. And don’t start playing around with anything. I don’t want you opening another rift into an alternate reality and blowing this one up.”

“Rodney-” Zelenka started, his expression warning that he was about to go on another unsolicited tirade.

“Just-” Rodney held up a hand. “Tell Woolsey I’ll be back later.”

Zelenka scowled. “Where are you going? There’s sensor data, and we still don’t know-” Rodney let him trail off into Czech and tapped his earpiece again.

“Daedalus, what do you have?”

“We have one lie sign, Doctor,” Marks answered. “But it’s faint.”

Rodney let out the breath he’d been holding and felt his shoulders slump slightly. “Beam it directly to your infirmary, and get me up there while you’re at it.”

There was another pause before Caldwell answered. “Doctor, are you sure, if that’s a wraith-”

“So send a security team too. If it’s the wraith we can get more by questioning him about how he ripped a hole in reality than we can by leaving him to crawl away and find someone to feed on. But I highly doubt anything survived that explosion. No, it’s gotta be Sheppard.”

After another pause, he heard Caldwell sigh. “Alright, standby for transport.”

A moment later Rodney was surrounded by the familiar flash of the Asgard transport beam and found himself rematerializing in the Daedalus’ infirmary. A second flash a moment later deposited a bloodsoaked John Sheppard on the infirmary floor.

Rodney backed away, letting a swarm of nurses descend to do their work, and breathing another sigh of relief when he heard Jennifer, who had apparently also beamed up from the planet report that Sheppard was alive, though he’d been shot twice and accumulated a few other injuries from the sub-space field and proximity to the explosion.

 _We’re still not even,_ Rodney thought, watching as Sheppard was wheeled into the Daedalus’ operating room. _Even after this I still owe you one._

_Atlantis-Eleven Months Earlier_

“ _Dr. McKay to the Control Room. Dr. McKay to the Control Room._ ”

Rodney grumbled and rolled over, blinking owlishly at the alarm clock next to his bed. He’d fallen asleep finally, having spent the last three days in his lab with Zelenka, trying to reverse engineer the device they’d found on an alternate version of the Daedalus, that Zelenka was insisting on calling the reality drive, but he’d eventually had to admit defeat and his need for sleep.

Now it was 2 am, and Chuck had obviously resorted to using city-wide comms to contact him. He grumbled and reached for his earpiece. “McKay here,” he said around a yawn. “This had better be good, you know I just-”

“ _Rodney!_ ” Teyla’s voice cut in, interrupting his complaints. “ _You’ll want to see this, we have an off-world activation._ ”

McKay stifled another yawn and shuffled out of bed. “So? That’s what shields and IDC’s are for, sleep is for me.” He considered lying back down.

“ _Rodney! It’s your IDC._ ”

A few minutes later, still bleary-eyed, and wear slippers and a robe over his pajamas Rodney shuffled into the control room to be greeted by Teyla, the Atlantis leader looking almost as exhausted, and the familiar blue glow of the active stargate. The shield was active, and obviously, the all-clear signal hadn’t been sent through yet.

Zelenka, hair standing on end and still looking half asleep rushed over holding a data tablet. “Rodney! The energy readings! Must have activated at the same time as the gate-” he kept talking, but Rodney stopped listening, examining the data on the tablet instead.

Zelenka was right, at least Rodney assumed he was talking about the right thing because the data tablet clearly showed a spike in sub-space energy at the same time as the incoming wormhole had activated the gate.

“Drop the shield!” he snapped to Chuck. “We need to let them in.”

“Rodney, are you certain?” Teyla asked, forehead crinkling in worry. “If it is the Wraith, or another Replicator copy-”

“It isn’t!” Rodney insisted, spinning the data tablet around to show her, though he was fairly sure she wouldn’t understand the readings. “This energy is the same one we picked up when the alternate Daedalus appeared above us. Now Zelenka and I have been trying to recreate the device-”

“The Reality Drive,” Zelenka put in helpfully.

Rodney rolled his eyes. “Yes, the Reality Drive, using some of the pieces recovered from the alternate Daedalus, but we didn’t think we were having any luck. We must have gotten further along than we thought, and activated a kind of...sub-space homing beacon if you will, and when the wormhole interacted with that sub-space signal they got sucked into this reality.”

“They?” Teyla asked, frowning at the active gate.

“Yes! From these readings that’s another version of me and my team, probably the one from the alternate Daedalus’ original reality. We need to let them in, who know what they were dialing out from, they could be under attack from the Wraith, or Replicators, or-”

Teyla held up a hand. “Very well Rodney. Lower the shield.”

Chuck nodded and sent the all-clear signal through as the shield dropped. A moment later blasts of weapons fire exploded into the control room, sending debris scattering into the air. Rodney ducked behind a console to avoid a beam that incinerated a chunk of the wall behind him and a team of marines and Athosian militia hurried into the gate room, ready to deal with intruders if necessary.

The event horizon rippled again, but this time instead of weapons fire a figure in an Atlantis uniform emerged, dragging another, and followed by a third that was instantly recognizable as Ronon Dex.

“Shut it down!” the first man yelled, his voice unfamiliar, and the gate flickered out. “What the hell took so long?!” The man demanded, stumbling to his feet, the figure he had been dragging slumping bonelessly to the ground.

Rodney stared. He didn’t recognize the man who had spoken, but he did recognize himself, crumpled on the floor in front of the gate, very obviously dead.


End file.
